Thunder

I didn’t write a report yesterday because a thunder storm came uncomfortably close to my tent camp. I have heard of several people being hit by lightning while using their mobile phone in a thunder storm. I don’t know if mobile phones actually attract lightning, but I didn’t feel happy being a guinea pig.

Yesterday morning I walked to a nearby road and continued in the direction of a small shop. I was completely out of water and had not eaten a proper meal for quite some time. The terrain was full of rifts because of erosion, so I had to make a long detour.

I was lucky in two ways. A car stopped and offered to drive me the four kilometres to the shop. Once I got there I bought five litres of water and Ice Tea and the old owners of the shop offered me breakfast. I was very grateful and left some extra money as thanks for their hospitality. I then got myself back to the starting point and went on walking the Great Wall.

The Great Wall not only follows the ridges of the hills in this area, but these hills are the highest ones to be seen. This gives a spectacular view of the surroundings.

The area was more populated than before, so towards the end of the day I started asking people if they knew of a shop. A guy told me there might be a woman with a few items for sale a mile away along the Great Wall. I managed to find it and met a wonderful 66 year old woman and her cat. She let me in and I bought two noodle meals for supper. Eating the meal, we spoke a bit and I took pictures of her kitchen. She was preparing supper for all the pigs they owned.

By this time it was getting late. I went on walking and noticed dark clouds behind me. When I turned around to look at them, I saw a big dog following me. It kept at a comfortable distance of 30 metres. I walked on and it kept following me keeping the same distance. I thought that a companion such as this dog would have been great to have on the longest and toughest days along the Wall…

It got darker and I looked for a camping site. Not so easy when all the hills have terraced hills with fields, or houses with barking dogs. I found an area by a large beacon tower and thought I was alone. Then I discovered a female shepherd. Just as I told her that I was walking the Great Wall I saw lightning in the distance behind her.

That was lucky, because I got to tie down my tent extra well. The only tent site I found was on one of the lower terraces from the beacon tower. It was still high up in the terrain. Soon came the lightning and thunder. It was intense and the closest was about a kilometre to the south. There was also a strong wind and heavy rain.